Ewart: Harper-era NEB coming to an abrupt end under Trudeau

Stephen Ewart, Calgary Herald

Updated: June 30, 2017

Environment Commissioner Julie Gelfand speaks with the media following the release of the 2015 Fall Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development in Ottawa on Tuesday Jan. 26, 2016. Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The “Harper era” for the National Energy Board — with so much focus on speeding up the regulatory review process for new oil pipelines — is quickly coming to an end in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Canada.

The idea of “one project, one review” conducted by the NEB within a two-year window was a key element of the omnibus Bill C-38 unveiled by then prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in 2012 to eliminate duplication and inefficiency and deter use of the regulatory process to delay major energy developments.

It also gave cabinet the right to overrule the NEB if it rejected an application.

Harper’s pipeline-backing government made it perfectly clear that “strong economic growth” was the primary outcome Ottawa desired from the changes to energy regulation.

Almost four years later, the three big projects proposed to move crude for Alberta’s oilsands to tidewater ports and on to global markets — Enbridge’s Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion and TransCanada’s Energy East — are each mired in delays or controversy and remain closer to the drawing board than putting pipe in the ground.

Now concerns are emerging from Trudeau’s government over the NEB’s mandate and its ability to carry it out.

A report by the federal commissioner of the environment and sustainable development tabled Tuesday in the House of Commons warned the federal regulator needs to keep better track of pipeline projects just as Ottawa plans to add the impact of greenhouse gas emissions to the criteria for the NEB to determine if a project is in the public interest.

It said the NEB hasn’t done enough to ensure companies are complying with conditions set out when projects are approved. Northern Gateway, for example, had 209 conditions to be met before Enbridge can proceed.

The NEB conducted 950 compliance verification activities from 2012 to 2014 and found “deficiencies in company compliance” in more than one-quarter of them, the report said. The commissioner’s office examined 42 of those cases of “deficiencies” and determined the NEB didn’t properly follow up more than half of the time.

“It is clear the Board needs to do more to keep pace with the rapidly changing context in which it operates,” commissioner Julie Gelfand said in Ottawa.

Gelfand made six recommendations for tracking compliance and emergency preparedness as well as attracting and retaining staff to do the work. The board said they reflected areas the NEB had recognized as needing improvement and expects to “comprehensively” address them by the end of 2016.

Trudeau promised to overhaul the NEB — he accused Harper of turning the federal regulator from a referee to a cheerleader during last year year’s election campaign — and a new federal pipeline safety act is expected by June.

The NEB dates to 1959 and relocated from Ottawa to Calgary in 1991. It regulates about 73,000 kilometres of interprovincial and international pipelines.

If built, the $25 billion in proposed projects would nearly double Canada’s pipeline capacity by 2020. NEB chairman Peter Watson has said the regulator is at a “critical juncture” given the complexity of the issues and public scrutiny and he’s been implementing a “modernization” plan for more than a year.

Pipelines regulated by the NEB transported oil and gas valued at more than $162 billion in 2014 but industry has said a lack of capacity led to steep discounts on Canadian crude.

Watson previously said he doesn’t “quibble” with the need for climate debate but maintained it is up to politicians to determine if that’s part of the NEB’s mandate. As for staffing concerns, Gelfand isn’t alone in raising the issue. The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association told a Senate committee on pipeline safety the same thing last year although widespread oilpatch layoffs may resolve that issue.

It’s evident tinkering with the NEB’s mandate or its operations won’t satisfy the critics and even major efforts to address climate issues have done little to quiet opponents. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley introduced a carbon tax and set a 100-megatonne cap on annual GHG emissions from the oilsands in November but it’s done little to quell the debate.

Notley and Trudeau have offered support for pipelines in response to criticism this week of Energy East by Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre. Trudeau said Tuesday it’s “the responsibility of the federal government is to establish a clear process whereby people can evaluate the projects in a rigorous and open manner.”

The response from the U.S. environmental group 350.org to a climate test for pipelines was “it’s timeCanadian politicians stopped squabbling over this pipeline or that pipeline and woke up to the 21st century.”

Politicians can empower regulators or make polluters pay — and should for a number of reasons — but there’s not going to be any quid pro quo from environmentalists for those efforts. As with Harper, they don’t want a rigorous review of pipelines, they simply want their way at any cost.

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